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Relevant tour dates now appear under artist pages

Google has added concert listings and tour dates to online search results. As a result, music fans searching by bands or individual artists can now quickly access information on live events and make ticket purchases with fewer clicks.

New features, which rolled out this week, provide a snapshot of information that includes calendar dates, concert venues and links to Ticketmaster, Songkick.com and other sites offering additional details. Displayed underneath artists' names and supporting websites on search results pages, data is tied to users' location and offers a brief overview of local appearances by acts like Van Halen and the Black Keys. Results are confined only to tour dates scheduled within one's regional area, however. No data is presented, and search results appear as normal, if the band isn't coming to town shortly.

"If [bands] aren't touring near you, new results for concerts won't appear," explained Kavi Goel, Product Manager, in a recent blog post. "But if the band happens to be coming to your town within the next few months, you can see the concert dates listed under the band's official website. You can then click on the band's official site to learn more or click on other web pages to learn more about the event or to buy tickets."

Google already displays search results that include direct links to songs and snippets of albums underneath artist listings on sites like Last.fm and MySpace. But by aggregating concert data from myriad sources and making it possible to locate sites where tickets can be purchased with a single click, it hopes to streamline and enhance the live music experience.

"To find upcoming concert tour dates, we aggregate relevant data for events from multiple websites and show it under the band's official website with links to the event sites where you can find out more about the event or purchase tickets," says Goel.

Features are currently available to English users only, though Google says it plans to add support for foreign countries in the future.